


Walk Me Home (One Last Time)

by ThisUsernameTaken



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Depends, Don't Examine This Too Closely, Don't you?, Drunk Tony Stark, Gen, I Do, I digress - Freeform, I don't even know what this is honestly, I don't get the craze behind parentheses, I rather like the title actually, Light Angst, Mathematics, My First AO3 Post, My First Work in This Fandom, Science, Short One Shot, Tags Are Hard, The suggestions for "my first" are absolutely dreadful, Though I suppose I'm in there too, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Wedding Planning, Weddings, Wtf are timelines, You all live in the gutter, but it worked out for me, cue trauma, dammit WSC, does anyone read the tags, flying a goddamn nuke into space, how the hell do you spell parentheses, like serious repetition of phrases, repetition of phrases, these tags are all out of order, they're delightful if not a drag, walking down the aisle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 10:01:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14892513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisUsernameTaken/pseuds/ThisUsernameTaken
Summary: He had always understood machines best.





	Walk Me Home (One Last Time)

**Author's Note:**

> One of my first works for this fandom. My writing style is quite dreadful, so warning to all scrolling down, that is, if anyone is here in the first place. If you are, thank you. Really.

This wasn't how he'd imagined it would go.   
  
He'd thought of it, sure. Even begun planning in a drunken haze, once ~~or seven times~~ ( _shut UP, Jarvis_ ), muttering about flower arrangements in the few occasions he wasn't muddled in self loathing or choking on the cold vacuum of space.  
  
But he'd never get far.   
  
He had always understood machines best. Math and science and numbers, where the worst that could go wrong was as far from emotional trauma as a maybe fractured wrist could be, DUM-E, put the damn fire extinguisher, down, will you? God.  
  
People and _emotions_  and all that gook, though? The hands that were always so steady would pause, shaking and uncertain, his mouth working silently in futility. Oh, the tales he could spin, the wicked things he'd say with a tongue sharpened on the whetstone of his father's disappointment; the cruelty of the press, would falter, limp and useless, in the face of genuine emotion, the dance of vapid flattery he knew so well nowhere in sight.   
  
He was no coward, of course, had proved himself to the world ten times over, but he'd sooner face the villain of the week in a heartbeat rather than get into the complications of all... _that_.  
  
So he'd always stop, always shake his head and flick his ideas into the trash, even though he knew Jarvis always backed them up elsewhere, the sly thing.  
  
He knew machines best, not people; not emotions.   
  
Not Pepper.  
  
He was afraid to break it, what they had, this delicate balance, a line he skated with ease yet utmost caution. No, everything he touched burned like hell, burned and broke before his eyes. So he kept his hands to himself, caked in ash and longing.  
  
No, this wasn't how he'd imagined it would go, all those times, all those years ago.  
  
That he would be walking down the aisle arm in arm beside her, and not, instead, at the other end, watching her duck her head in a smile.  
  
That he'd release her, gently, so gently, into arms other than his own.  
  
That he'd be the one stepping back, and not toward her, back and away.  
  
But he steps back, and he watches, smiling.   
  
Pepper looks so happy, radiant in a way he hasn't seen her in years.

No, this wasn't how he'd imagined it would go, not at all.  
  
It's better.


End file.
